8000 BC Humans arrive in Japan
Humans cross from eastern Siberia to the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, according to the earliest traces left by the Jomon culture

23 BC First Sumo wrestling
Sukune, according to tradition, wins the first sumo wrestling contest and becomes patron saint of the sport

350 Yamato clan rules
The clan ruling the Yamato plain becomes so powerful that its chieftain is seen as the emperor of Japan

400 Yamato adapt Shinto
The Yamato clan adapt Shinto to their own purposes, and claim imperial descent from the sun

538 Buddhism reaches Japan
A Buddhist image, sent as a gift from Korea, introduces the religion to Japan

607 Horyuji temple and pagoda
Prince Shotoku Taishi, an enthusiastic patron of Buddhism, builds the Horyuji temple and pagoda at Nara

710 Japanese court at Nara
The Japanese imperial court makes its capital city at Nara, based on the Chinese example of Xi'an

735 Go reaches Japan
Japanese tradition gives this as the year in which the game of I-go, known in the west as go, is introduced from China

768 Empress of Japan has a million charms
The empress of Japan, in a remarkable start to the story of printing, commissions a million copies of a Buddhist charm

794 Japanese court in Kyoto
The Japanese imperial court moves to a new capital city - Kyoto

877 Imperial chancellor Fujiwara
The Fujiwara family creates for itself a new hereditary office, that of imperial chancellor, through which it effectively rules Japan

995 Court lady shares pillow book
Sei Shonagon, a lady-in-waiting to the Japanese empress, records her thoughts and impressions in her Pillow Book

1001 Tale of Genji
Japanese author Murasaki Shibubi produces, in The Tale of Genji, a book which can be considered the world's first novel

1054 Eastern astronomers spot supernova
Astronomers in China and Japan observe the explosion of the supernova which is still visible as the Crab Nebula

1150 Zen Buddhism and the samurai
Zen Buddhism reaches Japan from China and appeals greatly to the new samurai class

1185 Minamoto clan triumphant
The triumph of the Minamoto clan in Japan in 1185 leads to an uneasy relationship between the brothers Yoritomo and Yoshitsune

1192 Yoritomo is shogun
Yoritomo is given the title sei-i-tai-shogun, beginning centuries of rule by shoguns more powerful than the Japanese emperors

1200 Samurai support shogun
The samurai provide military support for the shogun, in a system similar to feudalism at this same period in Europe

1200 Bushido and the samurai
Bushido, the code of the samurai, emphasizes the necessary qualities of respect, decorum, courage and martial skill

1250 Seto the centre of Japanese ceramics
A Japanese potter, returning from China, makes Seto the centre of ceramic production in Japan

1252 Cult of Amida in Japanese Buddhism
A huge bronze sculpture, known as Daibutsu and cast in Kamakura, depicts Amida, the Amitabha Buddha of Pure Land Buddhism

1274 Mongols invade Japan
The Mongol invasion of Japan in 1274 seems to confirm the doom and disaster foretold by the Buddhist prophet Nichiren

1281 Kamikaze saves Japan from Mongols
For the second time Japan is saved from Mongol invasion by powerful storms - which are given the name kamikaze, or 'divine wind'

1300 Tea Ceremony in Japan
The formalities of the Tea Ceremony demand equivalently exquisite wares from the Japanese potters

1338 Ashikaga shogun moves to Kyoto
A new dynasty, the Ashikaga shogunate, comes into power after a member of the family, Takauji, wins a civil war

1374 No theatre
Kanami and Zeami Motokiyo please the shogun with their theatrical performance, and his patronage begins the tradition of Japan's No theatre

1397 Golden Pavilion in Kyoto
The Golden Pavilion in Kyoto is built by the shogun Yoshimitsu as his own villa

1543 Europeans reach Japan
The first Europeans reach Japan by accident, blown ashore in a storm

1573 Oda Nobunaga top warlord
Oda Nobunaga takes power into his own hands, after ruling for a while through the Ashikaga shogun

1588 Bowl called raku
The shogun's Tea Master awards a gold seal with the one word raku ('felicity') to a beautiful bowl, thus naming Japan's most famous ware

1603 Tokugawa Ieyasu is shogun
The warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu is awarded the title of shogun, beginning nearly three centuries of the Tokugawa shogunate

1624 Japan chooses isolation
The Japanese are forbidden to leave their country, or foreigners to enter, at the start of more than two centuries of almost total isolation

1650 Japan's floating world
The pleasure districts of Edo and Kyoto provide the delights of ukiyo-e, the 'floating world'

1650 Kabuki popular in Japan
Japan's popular theatre, kabuki, develops as a form of café entertainment

1670 Kakiemon porcelain in Japan
Members of the Sakaida Kakiemon family are producing exquisitely decorated porcelain ware in Japan

1675 Dutch bring Kakiemon to Europe
Dutch traders purchase Kakiemon wares in Japan for import to the Netherlands

1780 Utamaro provides courtesans
Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro is a master of colour woodcuts, often depicting the courtesan district of Edo

1830 Hokusai does Mount Fuji
Hokusai begins to publish his famous colour-printed views of Mount Fuji

1854 Perry opens Japan to the West
Commodore Matthew Perry, commanding a powerful US fleet, persuades the Japanese to open their country to western trade – ending their period of isolation

1894 Neighbours fight over Korea
Japan and China go to war over Korea, with disastrous results for China

1895 Japanese victory at Weihaiwei
Japan's navy destroys the remains of China's fleet at Weihaiwei

1895 China cedes Taiwan to Japan
At the end of the Sino-Japanese war China cedes to Japan the island of Taiwan, together with Port Arthur and the Liadong peninsula

1902 US in control of Philippines
The three-year Philippine-American War is brought to an end, and the Philippines become a US colony

1904 Japan attacks Russia
A surprise Japanese attack on Russian warships in Port Arthur launches the Russo-Japanese War for influence in the Far East

1908 Two-year-old emperor in China
The last Manchu emperor, Puyi, is placed on the throne at the age of two on the death of his uncle, the Guanxu emperor

1908 China's dowager empress dies
The Empress Dowager Cixi dies the day after selecting the infant Puyi for the Chinese throne

1909 Leach moves to Japan
Bernard Leach moves to Japan to study oriental traditions in the graphic arts

1911 Leach throws his first pot
Bernard Leach discovers his skill and future craft at a raku party in Japan, where each guest is invited to throw a pot

1912 Tibet achieves independence
Tibet declares its independence after the fall of the Qing dynasty and the end of imperial China

1913 Guomindang outlawed in China
Yuan Shikai outlaws the Guomindang party in the republic of China, to give himself unchallenged power as president

1914 August 23 Japan enters war
Japan, with her own local agenda in the far east, declares war on Germany

1920 Leach and Hamada move to England
The Japanese potter Shoji Hamada accompanies Bernard Leach on his return to England

1926 Hirohito is emperor
25-year-old Hirohito succeeds to the imperial throne of Japan after five years as prince regent

1931 Japan occupies Manchuria
The Japanese occupy the Chinese state of Manchuria

1932 Manchuria becomes Manchukuo
Japan renames the Chinese province of Manchuria, calling it Manchukuo – supposedly independent but in fact a puppet state

1933 Japan withdraws from League of Nations
Japan announces its withdrawal from the League of Nations after a resolution is passed declaring the Japanese occupation of Manchuria illegal

1936 Germany and Japan in anti-communist pact
Germany and Japan establish an Anti-Comintern Pact against their common enemy, the USSR

1937 Japan attacks China
The Japanese use an incident at the Marco Polo Bridge, near Beijing, as the pretext for an attack on China

1937 Japanese occupy Beijing
Japanese troops occupy Beijing – at the start of eight years of continuous war between China and Japan

1937 Japanese atrocities in Nanjing
The Japanese capture the Chinese capital, Nanjing, and massacre at least 300,000 inhabitants within a few weeks

1939  May 11 Japan briefly at war with USSR
An incident on the border between Japanese Manchukuo and Soviet territory sparks a four-month war with the USSR that brings heavy Japanese losses

1940 September 27 Germany, Italy and Japan in pact
Germany, Italy and Japan form a Tripartite Pact as a military alliance

1941 United States enters the war
The US Congress declares war on Japan and President Roosevelt endorses the order

1941 October 16 Hideki is Japanese prime minister
Japanese emperor Hirohito appoints Tojo Hideki as the country's prime minister

1941 December 25 Japanese take Hong Kong
Hong Kong surrenders to an invading Japanese force

1942  April 18 Americans bomb Tokyo
US planes, flying from an aircraft carrier, undertake a difficult bombing raid on Tokyo

1944 October 25 First kamikaze attacks
Japanese pilots fly the first of World War II's suicide or kamikaze missions

1944 November 24 US bombers hit Tokyo
American B-29 bombers take off from the newly captured Saipan on the long trip to bomb Tokyo

1945  March 9 Napalm causes Tokyo fire storm
Napalm, used to bomb a crowded part of Tokyo, creates a firestorm in which 80,000 die

1945  April 5 US troops land on Okinawa
US troops land on the island of Okinawa, only 300 miles from the main islands of Japan

1945  April 6 Kamikaze defence of Okinawa
Thousands of Japanese kamikaze pilots die in massed suicide attacks in defence of the island of Okinawa

1945  April 12 New form of kamikaze
A US destroyer is sunk by a baka, a rocket-propelled version of a kamikaze attack

1945 June 22 Okinawa falls to US troops
After a ferocious three-month battle, Okinawa is in US hands

1945 July 26 Hirohito urges surrender
The Japanese emperor Hirohito argues the case for surrender but fails to persuade the military

1945 August 6 Atom bomb over Hiroshima
An atom bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, destroying four square miles of the city and killing 80,000 people

1945 August 8 Stalin enters war against Japan
The USSR declares war on Japan, two days after an atom bomb has been dropped on Hiroshima

1945 August 9 Atom bomb on Nagasaki
A second atom bomb is dropped from a US plane, this time over Nagasaki

1945 August 14 Hirohito speaks to his people
The emperor Hirohito, on the first occasion that his people have heard his voce, declares on radio that defeat must be accepted

1945 August 29 MacArthur to administer postwar Japan
Douglas MacArthur – in his role as Supreme Commander, Allied Powers – is appointed to administer postwar Japan

1945 September 2 Japan formally surrenders
World War II ends officially with the surrender of Japan, formally accepted by Douglas MacArthur

1946  January I Japanese emperor is mortal
The Japanese emperor Hirohito renounces his traditional divine status and declares that he is mortal

1946  March 27 War crimes tribunal in Tokyo
Twenty-five Japanese defendants are put on trial in Tokyo, charged with war crimes

1948 Matsuyama Ballet
Ballerina Mikiko Matsuyama and her husband establish a family-run balllet company in Tokyo

1948 December 23 Hideki convicted of war crimes
Japanese premier Tojo Hideki is convicted in the Tokyo war crimes trial and is hanged

1951 Rashomon
Japanese film director Kurosawa Akira makes an international reputation with Rashomon

1954 Seven Samurai
Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa directs The Seven Samurai

1956 Temple of the Golden Pavilion
Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima publishes The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

1965 Karaoke
Karaoke (abbreviated from the Japanese for 'empty orchestra') evolves in Japan

1970 Mishima commits suicide
Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima commits suicide in the traditional Samurai manner

1983 Digital synthesizer
The first all-digital synthesizer, the DX7, is put on the market by Yamaha

1983 Compact disc
Philips and Sony jointly introduce a new device, the compact disc

1994 Kansai airport
Italian architect Renzo Piano completes Kansai airport, on an artificial island in Osaka bay

1998 Longest suspension bridge
The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, linking Shikoku and Honshu in Japan, creates a new record as the longest suspension bridge

1998 International Space Station
The first module is launched of the International Space Station, a cooperative venture by five space agencies (USA, Russia, Japan, Canada, Europe)